Health Minister Nelson Bascome's disgruntled former business partner has accused him of making "ridiculous" undervalue bids in order to win Government construction projects.

The allegation came as Bascome, 52, stands accused of stealing more than $60,000 by funnelling a bank loan meant to be spent on the Natural Business Company into his own pockets instead.

He denies any wrongdoing and is on trial before Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner.

Yesterday, his former partner in the Natural Business Company, Robert Smith, claimed Bascome engaged in work projects behind his back and also told him not to worry about submitting low bids to the Government for Hurricane Fabian reconstruction projects – as the price could be renegotiated after they landed them.

Mr. Smith reported suspicions about his business partner to the Police in May 2005, resulting in an investigation by the Fraud Unit.

Taking the stand for the prosecution yesterday, Mr. Smith, from Bailey's Bay, said he has known the MP for 40 years and that around 1998 he showed Bascome a water filter he had invented.

"He was excited and told me that I had a gold mine and that I should not let anybody else know about it," explained Mr. Smith.

Bascome offered to help him get the design patented, and Mr. Smith – who did not know how to go about that – offered to go into business with him in a company that would do construction projects incorporating the filter.

"I told him if he said all that there (about getting the patent) then once the business starts I will make him 50/50 partner in the business," he told the court.

He said Bascome put money forward to obtain a patent and began negotiations with the Small Business Development Corporation to get a loan. Mr. Smith agreed to sign a letter authorising Bascome to make all the loan arrangements without him present and agreeing that he would transfer the patent over to the company.

"Once we got the loan and it's paid back, everything would revert back to me. That was the understanding between Mr. Bascome and myself," he told the court.

Mr. Smith went on to allege that Bascome collected details for Government construction work relating to Hurricane Fabian repairs and the Natural Business Company submitted estimates – resulting in it being offered 26 of them.

"I only accepted seven because the rest were ridiculous bids, like a job that would have been $90,000, it was bid at $1,400. Mr. Bascome done those bids there. What happened is you have to read the contract to understand that bid but Mr. Bascome just read the headline and wrote down (a bid.) The seven I accepted, I read the whole thing before I gave an estimate," Mr. Smith told the court.

He further claimed: "When I told Mr. Bascome 'these are ridiculous', he said 'don't worry, we can renegotiate once we get them'."

Of the seven jobs accepted, Mr. Smith told the court, Bascome claimed to have rejected the two highest value ones in St. George's – worth around $10,000 and $14,000 each – because the company had enough work.

However, Mr. Smith alleged that he later found out Bascome was actually working on those jobs. He confronted him, but he denied this.

Mr. Smith said after that he drew up an agreement that everything from then on should have dual signatures – but Bascome never turned up to the meetings he arranged.

After a further confrontation, Bascome told him they could not work with each other and suggested that Mr. Smith buy him out with a $200,000-plus payment for his half of the business, with Bascome keeping the company name.

Mr. Smith further testified that, during the time the pair worked together, Bascome was responsible for the company finances but kept him in the dark.

"Once a month he was supposed to give me a run-down on everything but that never happened," he said. "I have never seen a receipt...what he did give me was something printed out on the computer but I didn't like that. I wanted to see receipts but I have never seen a receipt for anything up 'til today."

He went on to tell the court that Bascome "was always telling us that he was paying us out of his personal money. I couldn't understand that as we were making ten times the amount of the salaries."

He came to the conclusion that Natural Business Company cheques were being paid into Bascome's own account because, after checking with Capital G bank, he realised the business accounts didn't have the money that they should have had.

"But we were being paid, so the money must have been going in his personal accounts," claimed Mr. Smith.

The case continues.